444 
PEA P E B 
true logician and difputant, without whom, as far as I 
could difcern, we fliould have had nothing from them 
but Dr. Gunning’s paffionate inveftives, mixed with fome 
argumentations. He difputed accurately, foberly, and 
calmly, (being but once in any pafiion,) breeding in us 
a great refpefl for him, and a perfuafion that, if he had 
been independent, he would have been for peace, and 
that, if it were in his power, it would have gone well. 
He was the ftrength and honour of that caufe which we 
doubted whether he heartily maintained.” 
In June 1661, he was appointed lady Margaret’s Pro- 
feffor of Divinity at Cambridge, and he filled that chair 
with diftinguifhed merit and applaufe. Upon a vacancy 
taking place in the mafterfhip of Trinity-college, in 1662, 
he was defied to that honourable ftation ; foon after 
which he re'figned his prebends of Ely and Sarum, as 
well as his reftory of St. Chriftopher’s. Dr. Pearfon con- 
dufled hiinfelf in this pod with great reputation till the 
year 1672, when he was defervedly advanced to the epis¬ 
copal rank, by being nominated fucceffor to the learned 
Dr. Wilkins, in the fee of Chefter; with which he was 
permitted to hold, in commcnclam, the archdeaconry of 
Surrey, and the reftory of Wigan in Lancafhire. Be¬ 
fore he was railed above the rank of a prefbyter, he had 
prepared for publication a learned work, which made its 
appearance in 1672, entitled, “ Vindiciae Epiftolarum S. 
Ignatii—Accefierunt Ifaaci Voffii Epiftolae duae adverfus 
David Blondellum,” 4to. This work owed its origin to 
the difpute then agitating concerning epifcopacy, and 
was intended to fupport the arguments in its favour 
drawn from the epiftles attributed to Ignatius, in oppo- 
fition to fuch anti-epifcopalians as preferred the charge 
of fpurioufnefs againft thofe remains of antiquity. Dr. 
Pearfon held the bifhopric of Chefter upwards of thir¬ 
teen years, but was difqualified from all public fervice by 
his infirmities for fome years before his death. That 
event took place in 1686, when he was in the 75th year 
of his age. 
Bifhop Pearfon w’as a man of profound and general 
learning, an exaft chronologift, and intimately acquaint¬ 
ed with the writings of the fathers, and with ecclefiafti- 
cal hiftory. Bifhop Burnet fays of him, that he “ was 
in all refpefls the greateft divine of the age: a man of 
great learning, ftrong reafon, and of a clear judgment. 
He was a judicious and grave preacher, more inftru&ive 
than affe&ive; and a man of a fpotlefs life, and of an 
excellent temper. His Book of the Creed is among the 
belt that our church has produced.” Dr. Pearfon had 
been admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1667. 
He was the author of, 3. A Preface to the Golden Re¬ 
mains of the ever-memorable Mr. John Hales of Eton- 
college, 1660, 8vo. 4. No Neceflity of Reformation of 
the public Doctrine of the Church of England, &c. fame 
date, 4to. 5. A Sermon, preached before the king, and 
publirtied by his majelty’s command, 1671, 4to. 6. The 
Preface, Prafatio Paranetica, to J. Field’s edition of the 
Septuagint, 1665, nmo. 7. Annales Cyprianici, five 
tredecim annorum quibus S. Cyprianus inter Chriftianos 
verfatus eft, Hiftoria Chronologica, printed with bifhop 
Fell’s beautiful edition of the works of that father, 1682, 
folio. He u'as alfo one of the editors of the Critici Sacri, 
or Colledtion of Critics and Commentators upon the 
Bible, in 9 vols. folio. And from his manufcripts were 
publirtied, after his death, 8. V. Cl. Joannis Pearfonii, 
S. T. P. Ceftrienfis nuper Epifcopi, Opera Polthuma 
Chronologica, See. Singula prado tradidit; edenda cu- 
ravit, et Difl'ertationis novis additionibus auxit H. 
Dodwellus, &c. 1688,4to. Reliquice Baxterianee. Burnet's 
own Time, vol. ii. Gen. Biog. 
PEASANT, / [paifan, Fr.] A hind; one whofe bu- 
finefs is rural labour.—He holdeth liimfelf a gentleman, 
and fcorneth to work, which, he faith, is the life of the 
peafant or churl. Spenfer. 
I had rather coin my heart, than wring 
From the hard hands of peafants their vile trafli. S/iakefp. 
PEASANT, aelj. Ruftic; country.—This have I ru¬ 
mour’d through thepeafant towns. ShaheJpeare's Hen. IV. 
Lik e peafant foot-boys do they keep the walls, 
And dare not take up arms like gentlemen. 
Shakefpeare's Hen. VI. P. 1. 
PEAS'ANTLIKE, or Peasantly, adj. Rude; un¬ 
taught ; clownifh ; refembling the behaviour of peafants. 
—He is not efteemed to deferve the name of a complete 
architeCl, an excellent painter, or the like, that bears not 
a generous mind above the peafanllj regard of wages and 
hire. Milton's Animad. Rem. Defence.- —We frame to our- 
felves a peafantlij notion of good and evil. Spenfer on 
Prod. —Learning is thought pedantic, agriculture pea- 
fantlike. Gov. of the Tongue. 
PEASANTRY,/. Peafants; ruftics; country people. 
—The peafantrj in France, under a much heavier pref- 
fure of want and poverty than the day-labourers of 
England of the reformed religion, underftood it much 
better than thofe of the higher condition among us. 
Locke. 
How many then fhould cover, that ftand bare : 
How much low peafantrj would then be gleaned 
From the true feed of honour ? how much honour 
Pickt from the chaff? Shahefpears' s Merck, of Ven. 
Behaviour of peafants ; rufticity ; coarfenefs.—As a gen¬ 
tleman you could never have defeended to fuch peafantrj 
of language. Butler's Remains. 
PEASCOD, or Peashell, / The hufk that contains 
peafe.—Thou art a (heal’d peafeod. Shakefpeare's K. Lear. 
—I faw a green caterpillar as big as a fmall peafeod. 
Walton. 
As peafeods once I pluck’d, I chanc’d to fee 
One that was clofely fill’d with three times three. 
I o’er the door the fpell in fecret laid. Gaj. 
PEASHAWM,/ The draw of peafe. 
PEASE, a townlhip of Belmont county, in Ohio, hav¬ 
ing 1379 inhabitants. 
PEAT,/ A fpecies of earth ufed for fuel.—Turf and 
peat, and cowfheards, are cheap fuels, and lalt long. Ba¬ 
con's Nat. Hif.— See Turfa paluftris. 
PEAT-EARTH,/ Earth mixed with vegetable fub- 
ftances forming or producing peat.— Carew, in his Survey 
of Cornwall, mentions nuts found in peat-earth two miles 
eaft of St. Michael’s Mount. Woodward. 
PEAT-LAND, / Land producing peat.—It is per¬ 
haps owing to an antifeptic quality in fome of thefe 
plants, that there happens fuch an accumulation of their 
fpoils, conftantly penetrated with water, without their 
undergoing any putrefaction ; a circumftance that elfen- 
tially diftinguifties our peat-lands from marfhes, for the 
air is always falubrious. Be Luc's Geol. Letters to Prof. 
Blumenbach. 
PEAT LAW, a hill of Scotland, in the county of Sel¬ 
kirk : two miles north-weft of Selkirk. 
PEA'TRA, a town of European Turkey, in Moldavia : 
fixteen miles fouth-fouth-weft of-Niemecz. 
PEAULE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Morbihan : four miles north-weft of Roche Bernard, and 
fix fouth of Rochefort. 
PEB'BLE, or Pebble-stone,/ [paebolycana, Sax.] 
A fmall (tone.—Suddenly a file of boys delivered fuch a 
(hower of pebbles loofe (hor, that I was fain to draw mine 
honour in. Shakefpcare —You may fee pebbles gathered 
together, and a cruft of cement between them, as hard as 
the pebbles. Bacon. —Through the midft of it ran a fweet 
brook, which did both hold the eye open with her azure 
ftreams, and yet feek to clofe the eye with the purling 
noife it made upon the pebble-fones it ran over. Sidney. 
Winds murmur’d through the leaves your long delay ; 
And fountains o’er the pebbles chid your (lay. Drjden. 
The bifhop and the duke of Glo’fter’s men, 
Forbidden late to carry any weapon, 
Have fill’d their pockets full of pebble fones. Shakefpeare. 
Pebbles 
